Method for characterizing stored information

ABSTRACT

A method for characterizing a pattern present as stored information, includes the steps of generating a characterizing proposal for the pattern using a server computer system, presenting the pattern and the characterizing proposal to a client computer using a computer program via the Internet so as to enable a user to perform an evaluation of the characterizing proposal, and receiving an evaluation input from the user at the server computer system. The evaluation input is one of an acceptance input of the characterizing proposal and a rejection input of the characterizing proposal. The rejection input includes an alternative characterizing proposal.

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates to a method for characterizing patterns.

The manual characterization of samples by people is a time-consuming andexpensive process. In order to speed up this process, methods are usedwhich generate a characterization proposal. The processing employee musteither accept the proposal or modify it if the proposal is not correct.Characterization methods are used in particular in classificationmethods in which a set of parameters for identifying objects isdetermined using training examples. The training data record mustrepresentatively cover all the peripheral conditions of theidentification task here. In order to identify street scenes, samples ofseveral thousand to tens of thousands of manually processed imagescontaining all the potentially occurring classes of objects, for examplepassenger cars, trucks, two-wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, weatherconditions etc., are required.

From the processing of colored video images, a method is known in whichan object, for example a tree, is characterized manually in the firstimage in an image sequence (J. R. Ohm, P. Ma: “Feature-Based ClusterSegmentation of Image Sequences”, Int. Conf. on Image Processing, Vol.III, 1997, pages 178-181). With this predefined information an attemptis made to identify again the same object in the next image of the imagesequence. In this context, the color information of the object ispreferably used to distinguish the object from the rest of the image.This method is not suitable for gray value images. The manual processingof the object is very time-consuming during the characterizationprocess.

A method is known (A. K. Jain, Yu Zhong, S. Lakshamanan, “Objectmatching using deformable templates”, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysisand Machine Intelligence, Vol. 18, No. 3, March 1996, p. 267-278) inwhich a database of automatically generated contour patterns is used tocharacterize objects (patterns) in image data. The contour patterns areautomatically adapted to the objects and superimposed on them. The imagedata together with the contour patterns superimposed on them are thenpresented to a viewer on a screen.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to find a novel method for automaticallycharacterizing patterns which ensures that the pattern andcharacterization coincide to an optimum degree.

The present invention provides a method for characterizing a patternpresent as stored information. The method includes

-   -   generating a characterizing proposal assigned to the pattern        using a server computer system;    -   presenting the pattern and the characterizing proposal to a        client computer using a computer program via the Internet so as        to enable a user to perform an evaluation of the characterizing        proposal; and    -   receiving an evaluation input from the user at the server        computer system.

The invention has the advantage that a large gain in time in thecharacterization process is achieved during the automatic generation ofcharacterization proposals, even when there are faulty proposals owingto the mass of the samples to be characterized. It is also advantageousthat automatic methods are used for generating the characterizationproposals and said methods can be very time-consuming and demanding interms of computing as the characterization proposals can be generatedindependently of the characterization process. The characterizationproposals which are generated are stored in a database until they arechecked by the processing employee and are presented to the processingemployee while the characterization process is taking place.

When automatic methods are used for generating characterizationproposals, which methods process the proposals very quickly and presentthem to the processing employee, it is advantageous that the proposalscan be generated directly during the characterization process.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in more detail by means of an exemplaryembodiment, and in the drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a method according to thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIG. 1, a method for characterizing a pattern present asstored information according to the present invention includes the stepof generating a characterizing proposal using a server computer system.[Block 10]. The characterizing proposal and the pattern are thenpresented to a client computer using a computer program and via theinternet so as to enable a user to perform an evaluation of thecharacterizing proposal. [Block 20]. Next, an evaluation input isreceived from the user at the server computer. [Block 30]. Theevaluation input is either an acceptance input of the characterizingproposal or a rejection input of the evaluation proposal. The rejectioninput includes an alternative characterizing proposal.

The pattern which is to be characterized is present in a computer systemin electronic form. The pattern is recorded, for example, with a videocamera or a document is scanned into a computer. Acoustic patterns,which are present in electronic form, are also characterized.

A characterization proposal is generated for the pattern. This proposalcan be generated separately from the actual characterization process,for example if the method for generating the proposal is verytime-consuming. However, it is also possible to generate the proposalduring the characterization process, for example if the method iscapable of generating the proposals in real time or virtually in realtime.

The pattern and the generated characterization proposal are presented tothe processing employee in suitable form on a display by means of acomputer program. In the case of images, for example, the original imageis presented together with the characterization proposal which ispresented in the form of a closed line configuration, for example. Theline configuration is superimposed on the original image so that theprocessing employee can see both the line configuration and the originalimage. If the object to be characterized is characterized withsufficient precision by the generated proposal, the proposal is acceptedby the processing employee and stored in the system as acharacterization. If the proposal is too imprecise, there are a numberof possibilities. On the one hand, the processing employee will deletethe incorrect proposal (or modify it) himself and generate his owncharacterization proposal manually. On the other hand, it is possiblefor the proposal to be rejected by the processing employee. The proposalis then used as a basis for a further method in order to still arrive ata correct characterization proposal. Furthermore, it is possible todelete the proposal completely and to try to generate a suitableproposal using a more complex method.

In order to cope with a large number of samples, the characterizationmethod is carried out using the Internet. Throughout the world, theprocessing and, if appropriate, collection of samples is carried out bymeans of loosely organized groups of between several hundred to athousand persons.

In the context of the use of the invention within a data network, adevice according to the invention for carrying out the method is to beadvantageously considered as a system which is divided in two, composedof a server system and a processing device.

In this context, the server system has a device for storing patterns, aunit for generating characterization proposals for the stored patterns,a memory for storing the characterizations which are assigned to thepatterns and a communications device for communicating with a processingdevice for evaluating and processing the characterization proposals. Ascounterpart, the processing device for evaluating and processingcharacterization proposals for the patterns is configured in such a waythat it comprises a display for displaying the patterns and theassociated characterization proposals and an input unit for inputtingthe assessment of the characterization of the pattern and/or fordeleting or modifying the characterization. Furthermore, the processingdevice has a communications unit for communicating with a server systemfor storing patterns and characterizations and for generatingcharacterization proposals.

With the objective of allowing as many characterization processes aspossible to run simultaneously, it is advantageous if the server systemis connected to a plurality of processing devices.

The server system can also comprise a second server configured to storea plurality of patterns, to store plurality of characterizations, and togenerate a plurality of characterizing proposals; and a communicationsunit configured to communicate with the second server.

1. A method for characterizing a pattern present as stored information,the method comprising: generating a characterizing proposal for thepattern automatically based upon the pattern using a server computersystem, the pattern being on the server computer in electronic form;presenting the pattern in electronic form and the characterizingproposal to a client computer using a computer program via the Internetso as to enable a user to perform an evaluation of the characterizingproposal; and receiving an evaluation input from the user at the servercomputer system, the evaluation input being one of an acceptance inputof the characterizing proposal and a rejection input of thecharacterizing proposal, wherein the rejection input includes analternative characterizing proposal for the pattern.
 2. The method asrecited in claim 1, wherein the user is a processing employee.
 3. Themethod as recited in claim 1, further comprising storing thecharacterizing proposal as a characterization of the pattern when theevaluation input is the acceptance input, and receiving and storing thealternative characterizing proposal as the characterization of thepattern when the evaluation input is the rejection input.
 4. The methodas recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a plurality offurther characterizing proposals and storing the characterizing proposaland the plurality of further characterizing proposals in a databasebefore the step of presenting the pattern and the characterizingproposal.
 5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the generatingand the presenting are performed in real time with respect to theevaluation by the user.
 6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein thepattern is an image and the presenting includes presenting the image andthe characterizing proposal together on a display.
 7. The method asrecited in claim 6, wherein the presenting includes presenting thecharacterizing proposal as a closed line configuration superimposed onthe image.
 8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprisingmanually generating the alternative characterizing proposal andreceiving and storing the alternative characterizing proposal as thecharacterization of the pattern when the rejection input is received. 9.The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising generating a secondcharacterizing proposal using the computer system when the rejectioninput is received, the second characterizing proposal being generatedusing a more complex generation algorithm than for generating therejected characterizing proposal.
 10. The method as recited in claim 1,further comprising using the characterizing proposal as the basis for asecond pattern when the evaluation input is a rejection.
 11. The methodas recited in claim 1, wherein the presenting includes presenting thepattern and the characterizing proposal to a plurality of clientcomputers so as to enable a plurality of users to perform an evaluationof the characterizing proposal, and wherein the receiving includesreceiving a plurality of evaluation inputs.